Since 1980, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has tried to assist families in clarifying the whereabouts of thousands of persons by urging Governments to conduct appropriate investigations. Many of the cases remain outstanding and it is essential that Governments and non-governmental organizations cooperate with the Working Group to resolve them. My experience has taught me that the disappeared are often the most contentious issue in peace-making, the question that makes confidence-building all the more difficult. Rightly so.

The norms and the mechanisms at our disposal are not sufficient however. We need new approaches to addres s this pernicious problem. Last year, the Commission embarked on a useful exercise to elaborate a new, legally binding instrument that would guarantee - in a substantive and novel way - better protection for current and potential victims of enforced disappearance and provide a comprehensive and integral approach to address the problem. My hope is that the instrument under discussion would be more than a series of negative obligations on States parties to defer from certain actions, but would also impose positive obligations to create the strong mechanisms needed to prevent deviation. Some of the issues currently being considered are straightforward, action-based measures that address this complex problem. I am encouraged by discussions on the need for stronger measures against impunity, cooperation between States, mechanisms against arbitrary detention, training of law enforcement personnel and the guarantee of the right to reparation. There is indeed a lacuna in international law that needs to be urgently filled. Not that legal instruments provide us with instant solutions. But in the absence of norms, solutions are all the more evasive, haphazard and inhuman.

Ladies and gentlemen,

In discussing the problem of disappearances during the time of conflict, we must rely on the complementary approaches of human rights and international humanitarian law. Here the role of the ICRC is again crucial, not only in being the guardian of IHL, but also in charting the way forward for protecting individuals during the most difficult circumstances. As the process of preparation for this expert meeting has once again shown, cooperation between ICRC and OHCHR is essential.

Let us recall also that our ultimate aim is prevention. Reaction and prevention are not mutually exclusive concepts. Strong democratic, legal, and accessible institutions will be be tter equipped to discharge the State’s obligations and uphold the rule of law. I am thinking of a human-rights oriented executive, parliament and judiciary, and an independent national human rights institution. They have all proven to be indispensable to tackling the plight of the missing.

In conclusion, I wish you success in the deliberations of this expert meeting and look forward to the follow up of theses issues in the international conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. The challenge ahead of you is to find enhanced and practical approaches to address this distressing problem. You will surely be guided in your work by your commitment to ensure that families will be able to close the cycle of mourning and that such tragedies can be avoided in the future.

As one human rights defender tried to explain the motivation behind the work he did: “I do not want to be the next in line waiting at home, sitting at the table next to an empty chair, or lying in bed next to an empty pillow, or waiting for that particular person to knock at the door – that never comes.”